Best sample packs of the month: September 2022

There are plenty of sample releases to check out this September, and we’ve put together a list of our favourites. Our top picks include ambient guitars, club-shaking drill beats, nostalgic synths, punchy analogue bass, a menacing, cinematic foghorn and more.

• READ MORE: Best freeware of the month: September 2022

ModeAudio – Gradient

• £20
• Download ModeAudio

ModeAudio presents a deep and haunting collection of evolving guitar textures this month. Gradient only has 100 samples, but it weighs in at a sizeable 1.38 GB, as the sample lengths ranges from 28 to 90 seconds.

Gradient includes 60 ambience, 20 bass and 20 sound effects samples that cover delay-drenched chords, shimmering melodies, thick drones and more. A combination of clean tones, plucks, harmonics, strums, scratches and scrapes were fed through bespoke effects chains to create epic and cinematic atmospheres that are perfect for downtempo, ambient and film music.

Loopmasters – Central Decay – Drill

• £27.95 (Loopcloud ready)
• Download Loopmasters

Although it’s been around since the early 00s, drill remains a boundary-pushing genre that continues to evolve. This collection of 201 loops and 161 on-shots pays tribute to emerging drill scenes in the UK, South America and beyond, with influences such as Chief Keef, Lil Durk and Fredo Santana.

You can find hard-hitting beats with signature rapid-fire percussion, chilling pads and melodies, speaker-shaking basses and chopped up vocals from 142 to 154 bpm. There are also 86 patches in a variety of sampler formats.

Loopmasters – Crash the 90s

• £24.95 (Loopcloud ready)
• Download Loopmasters

Producer Nick Coles has collected together a treasure trove of key sounds from the 90s rave era for this new pack from Loopmasters. There are 165 loops and 163 one-shots that cover iconic piano hooks, retro drum and percussion patterns, basses, effects and some superb hardcore stabs, all at 124 and 125 bpm.

To round things off, there are also 78 sampler patches and 73 MIDI files. Given the rave revival going on in clubland right now, this is the perfect pack for anyone looking to inject some authentic 90s dance energy.

BandLab Sounds – 1980s Synthwave Vol 1&2

• FREE
• Download BandLab

The sound of Synthwave has entrenched itself in modern music, from underground film soundtracks to iconic hits from pop stars such as The Weeknd. This free library from BandLab Sounds contains 126 loops and is spread across two volumes.

The first volume focusses on the signature sound of driving electronic drums and percussion, and the second features an array of big synth leads, bass sequences, bell melodies and effects. All loops are at 126 or 128 bpm and are key-labelled.

Cinesamples Drums of War 3

• $149
• Download Cinesamples

If you’re looking for some score-ready cinematic percussion, then you’ll want to check out Drums of War 3. It features 3.75 GB of uncompressed audio, with 23 instrument patches that load into the free Kontakt Player 6.71+. Its instruments include snares, toms, and bass drums, plus gongs, djun, surdo, djembe, and bumba.

All the sounds have been carefully recorded and processed to deliver depth, clarity and punch, making it perfect for modern action, suspense, thriller, sci-fi and fantasy scores.

Spitfire Audio – Blankfor.ms – Tape Synths

• £49
• Download Spitfire Audio

Spitfire Audio has teamed up with tape artist BlankFor.ms, real name Tyler Gilmore, for this unique, nostalgia-soaked synth instrument. Classic synth sounds and shapes were run through unusual gear, such as a Walkman, Library of Congress C1, a modular system, various Tascam machines, a range of rare and classic pedals and more.

The sounds were then heavily mangled and processed via tape splicing, pitch-shifting, generative techniques, analogue saturation, filtering, distortion, and granular synthesis. The result is a beautiful sounding, 10.5 GB instrument with 140 dusty, lo-fi presets that allow you to morph through different textures.

Soundiron – Twine Bass

• $39
• Download Soundiron

Twine Bass features the sounds of a modified cello that was strung with rough hemp twine in various tunings and played as a stand-up bass, plus a traditional Kenyan fretless stringed instrument called a Bolon. Both were deeply sampled with 10x round-robin and up to 14 velocity layers, alongside other sounds such as legato slides, finger taps and brushes, string mutes, tuning peg pluck/twists, and other percussive effects.

In total, there are over 2,000 samples that load into Kontakt 5.5+, with the rich and warm main instrument sounds, plus 30 ambience patches and 20 custom sound-designed effects presets.

Spitfire Audio Labs – Foghorn

• FREE
• Download Spitfire Audio

We’ve got a second Spitfire entry this month, but this time it comes from the brand’s free LABS series. The latest free instrument samples the sounds of the Sumburgh Foghorn, which was originally built in 1905 to guide ships through dangerous fog.

Foghorn’s low-end brassy tones make it a superb tool for menacing soundtracks and cavernous atmospheres. You get a range of presets that showcase the raw sound, plus inventive, distorted pads, and tempo synced percussive loops from the horn’s engine.

Soundpaint – Kick Base 11

• $20
• Download Soundpaint

Soundpaint has captured every detail of the MBass11 Analog Bass Drum Module for this new expansion pack. The impactful and weighty sounds have been further processed through an arsenal of cinematic treatments to offer various levels of sub, grit, saturation and analogue heat.

Although the original hardware is designed for crafting big and bold kicks, it can also synthesise higher pitched sounds, and through the Soundpaint engine you can even create leads and pads. The total library comes in at 2.36 GB, with 50 preset programs that cover EDM bass, old-school electro and modern cinema hits.

Glitched Tones – Urban Gongs

• £20
• Download Glitched Tones

Glitched Tones’ unique percussion instrument for Kontakt 6.5.3+ features the sounds of various object impacts recorded with a Geophonic microphone, which captures deep, low-frequency details.

The main kit includes 64 raw, unprocessed hits that can be used to build full rhythm tracks, to enhance an existing beat, or to add cinematic depth to a score. There are also nine further sound-designed instruments that showcase what can be done with some additional processing and include plucks, basses, staccato strings, minimal pads, effects and more.